How to verify VCS installation on a system
Symantec recommends that you verify your installation of Symantec Cluster Server (VCS) on a system before you install or upgrade VCS. This allows you to know about the product prerequisites, installed product version, and configuration. You can verify installation of VCS on a system using the following techniques: Operating System (OS) commands Script-based Installer Symantec Operations Readiness Tools (SORT) checks VCS command validation OS commands You can run native OS commands on the system to verify whether VCS is installed. The following table lists the commands to verify the VCS installation and the VCS version and patches installed on the system. Use cases AIX HP-UX Linux Solaris Verifying VCS installation lslpp -l VRTSvcs swlist VRTSvcs rpm –qi VRTSvcs For Solaris 10: pkginfo –l VRTSvcs For Solaris 11: pkg info VRTSvcs Verifying VCS version and patches lslpp -l VRTSvcs swlist VRTSvcs rpm –qi VRTSvcs showrev –p | grep VRTSvcs You can use these commands to verify which product packages are installed on the system.To get a complete list of required and optional packages for VCS, see the product release notes on theSORTwebsite. Note:On Linux, there is no sparse patch or patch ID. Therefore, the package version itself indicates the patch version of the installed VCS. Advantage of using the OS command technique By default, native commands are available on a system and can be used with ease. Limitations of using the OS command technique You must run OS commands as root on the cluster nodes. OS commands are useful for package and patch validation. However, these commands do not provide complete information about the VCS product installation. You need to run multiple commands to validate whether the required packages are installed on the system Script-based Installer Symantec recommends that you use the script-based installer to install Symantec products. The script-based installercan be used to identify which products from the Storage Foundation and High Availability (SFHA) family are installed on the system. The installer script can be executed to get a list of VCS packages and their versions installed on the system. These commands can be executed on AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaris. The installer also allows you to configure the product, verify the pre-installation requisites, and view the description of the product. The following command provides the major version of the product and packages installed on the system. However, it does not provide details such as join version, build date, and patches installed on the other nodes in the cluster. To use this command, VCS must be already installed on the system. To use the script-based installer to verify the version of VCS installed on the system Run the following command: #/opt/VRTS/install/installvcs<version> –version Whereversionis the specific release version. For example, to validate the VCS 6.1 installation on the system, run the following command: #/opt/VRTS/install/installvcs61 –version To initiate the VCS installation validation using the product DVD media provided by Symantec, run the following installer script: #<dvd-media-path>/installer -version The installer script lists the Symantec products installed on the system along with the version details of the products. You can also use this script to perform a pre-check of the required package dependencies to install the product. If the product is already installed on the system and you want to validate the list of packages and patches along with their version, run the following command: #/opt/VRTS/install/showversion This command provides details of the product installed on all the nodes in a cluster. This information includes the product name, required and optional packages installed on the system, installed and available product updates, version, and product license key. Advantage of using script-based installer A single script validates all nodes in the cluster. Therefore, it does not need any platform-specific commands for performing validation. Limitation of using script-based installer The VRTSsfcpi package must be installed on the systems. Note: The VRTSsfcpi package was first released in VCS 6.0 and is available in the later versions. For earlier versions, use the installer from the DVD media. As an alternative, you can launch theinstaller from the DVD provided by Symantec, regardless of the product version. For more information about installing VCS using installer, seeInstalling VCS using the installer. SORT checks SORT provides a set of web-based tools to automate and simplify time-consuming administrator tasks. For example, the data collector tool gathers system-related information and generates web-based and text-based custom reports. These reports capture the system and platform-related configuration details and list the Symantec products installed on the system. SORT generates the following custom reports: Installation and Upgrade Risk Assessment License/Deployment You can generate and view custom reports to check which Symantec products are installed on a system. These reports list the passed and failed checks and other significant details you can use to assess the system. The checks and recommendations depend on the installed product. For SORT checks, see System Assessments. To generate a SORT custom report, On theData Collectortab, download the appropriate data collector for your environment. Follow the instructions in the README file to install the data collector. Run the data collector. It analyzes the nodes in the cluster and stores results in an XML file. On theUpload Reportstab, upload the XML file to the SORT website. SORT generates a custom report with recommendations and links to the related information. For more information about custom reports, visithttps://sort.symantec.com. Advantage of using the SORT checks SORT checks provide comprehensive information about the installed product. Limitation of using the SORT checks SORT data collector is not a part of product media and must be downloaded and installed on the system to generate reports. VCS command validation VCS provides a set of commands to validate and provide additional details of the components installed as a part of VCS product installation. For more information about verifying the VCS installation using VCS commands, seeSymantec™ Cluster Server 6.1 Administrator's Guide. The VCS command validation method allows you to check if VCS is correctly configured on the nodes in a cluster. To verify the status of the VCS components such as Low-Latency Transport (LLT), Group Membership Services/Atomic Broadcast (GAB), and the VCS engine, you can inspect the content of the key VCS configuration files or run the following VCS commands. Component Command Provides GAB #gabconfig -W GAB protocol version LLT #lltconfig -W LLT protocol version VCS engine #had -version HAD engine version and join version Cluster #hasys -state Cluster state Advantages of using VCS commands VCS commands provide comprehensive information about the cluster. VCS commands can be used for configuring the cluster. Limitation of using VCS commands VCS commands can be used only after the VCS product is completely installed and configured on the system. Frequently asked questions The following is a list of VCS installation-related frequently asked questions: Where do I check the availability of the CPI installer on a system? The installer script is located at /opt/VRTS/install. Where are the CPI installation logs located? The installation logs are located at /opt/VRTS/install. Where do I find information about SORT checks and reports? For information about SORT checks and reports, visithttps://sort.symantec.com. How do I validate a system before installing VCS? Before you install VCS, you must make sure the system is ready. To validate the system, use the installer script on the Symantec DVD. To start the pre-installation validation on the system and verify whether the system meets the product installation requirements, run the following command: #installer –precheck
SFHA Solutions 6.0.1: Using Veritas Cluster Server Simulator
Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) Simulator enables you to simulate and test cluster configurations. You can use VCS Simulator to view and modify service group and resource configurations and test failover behavior. VCS Simulator can run on a stand-alone system and does not require any additional hardware. You can install VCS Simulator only on a Windows operating system. VCS Simulator runs an identical version of the VCS High Availability Daemon(HAD) as in a cluster, ensuring that failover decisions are identical to those in anactual cluster. Using VCS Simulator, you can test configurations from different operating systems.For example, you can run VCS Simulator to test configurations for VCS clusterson Windows, AIX, HP-UX, Linux, and Solaris operating systems. VCS Simulatoralso enables you to create and test global clusters. You can administer VCS Simulator from the Java Console or from the commandline. To download VCS Simulator, see: http://go.symantec.com/vcsm_download For more information on installing and administering VCS Simulator, see: Installing VCS Simulator on a Windows System Upgrading VCS Simulator Administering VCS Simulator Predicting VCS behavior using VCS Simulator Administering VCS Simulator from the Java Console Administering VCS Simulator from the command line interface VCS documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on theSORT website.
Using third party Multipathing with VCS LVM agents
Using third party Multipathing with VCS LVM agents is mostly not clear in the documentation. With SF, you can understand why 3rd party Multipathing needs to be tested to be supported as SF integrates at a low-level with the storage and multipathing effect this, but with VCS, VCS integrates with LVM at a high level, activating and deactivating he volume groups (equivalent to importing and deporting Veritas diskgroups), so it is first unclear why any 3rd party multipathing software should not be supported, except for perhaps O/S multipathing which is tightly integrated with LVM where the command to activate or deactivate the diskgroup MAY be different if multipathing is involved. For AIX, the HCL specifically mentions VCS LVM agentswith third party Multipathing: The VCS LVM agent supports the EMC PowerPath third-party driver on EMC's Symmetrix 8000 and DMX series arrays. The VCS LVM agent supports the HITACHI HDLM third-party driver on Hitachi USP/NSC/USPV/USPVM, 9900V series arrays. but VCS LVM agentsare not mentioned for Linux or HP-ux - these should be, even if this is to say "no third party Multipathing is supported with VCS LVM agents" In the Linux 5.1 bundled agents guide, it IS clear thatno third party Multipathing is supported with VCS LVM agents: You cannot use the DiskReservation agent to reserve disks that have multiple paths. The LVMVolumeGroup and the LVMLogicalVolume agents can only be used with the DiskReservation agent, Symantec does not support the configuration of logical volumes on disks that have multiple paths However, it is not so clear with 6.0 which says: No fixed dependencies exist for LVMVolumeGroup Agent. When you create a volume group on disks with single path, Symantec recommends that you use the DiskReservation agent So in 6.0, DiskReservation is optional, not mandatory as in 5.1, but thebundled agents guide does not say why theDiskReservation agent is mandatory in 5.1 and it does not elaborate why it is recommended in 6.0 - i.e. the 6.0bundled agents guide does not explain the benefits of using theDiskReservation agent or the issues you may encounter if you don't use theDiskReservation agent. The6.0bundled agents guide says for theDiskReservation agent: In case of Veritas Dynamic Multi-Pathing, the LVMVolumeGroup and the LVMLogicalVolume agents can be used without the DiskReservation agent This says you can use Veritas Dynamic Multi-Pathing with LVM, but it doesn't explicitly say you can't use other multipathing software, and for the LVMVolumeGroup agent, the 6.0bundled agents guidegives examples using multipathing, but it does not say if this is Veritas Dynamic Multi-Pathing or third party. To me, as the examples say multipathing and NOT specifically Veritas DMP, this implies ALL multipathing is supported, but it is not clear. So it seems that for 5.1 and before, for Linux and HP-ux (if you go by HCL), all disk multipathing was not supported with VCS LVM agents, but in the 10 years I worked for a consultant at Symantec, not one customer did NOT use disk multipathing - this is essential redundancy and there is no point having LVM agents if they don't support disk multipathing, so I am not sure it can be correct that multipathing is not supported with VCS LVM agents. This is redeemed in part by the recent introduction of Veritas Dynamic Multi-Pathing being available as a separate product which doesn't require SF and can be used on non-VxVM disks. So can the support be clarified for 5.1 and 6.0 of the support ofthird party Multipathing with VCS LVM agents on this forum and the documents updated to make what is supported clearer. Thanks MikeSFW 6.1: Support for Cluster Volume Manager (CVM)
Cluster Volume Manager (CVM) is a new feature introduced in Symantec Storage Foundation for Windows (SFW) 6.1. CVM is a new way to manage storage in a clustered environment. With CVM, failover capabilities are available at the volume level. Volumes under CVM allow exclusive write access across multiple nodes of a cluster. In a Microsoft Failover Clustering environment, you can create clustered storage out of shared disks, which lets you share volume configurations and enable fast failover support at the volume level. Each node recognizes the same logical volume layout and, more importantly, the same state of all volume resources. Each node has the same logical view of the disk configuration as well as any changes to this view. Note: CVM (and related cluster-shared disk groups) is supported only in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment. It is not supported for a physical environment. CVM is based on a "Master and Slave" architecture pattern. One node of the cluster acts as a Master, while the rest of the nodes are Slaves. The Master node maintains the configuration information. The Master node uses Global Atomic Broadcast (GAB) and Low Latency Transport (LLT) to transport its configuration data. Each time a Master node fails, a new Master node is selected from the surviving nodes. With CVM, storage services on a per virtual machine (VM) basis for Hyper-V virtual machines protects VM data from single LUN/array failures, helping maintain availability of the critical VM data. CVM helps you achieve the following: Live migration of Hyper-V virtual machines, which is supported with the following: Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs) of virtual machine lying on one or more SFW volumes Coexistence with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) Mapping of one cluster-shared volume to one virtual machine only Seamless migration between arrays Migration of volumes (hosting VHDs) from any array to another array Easy administration using the Storage Migration Wizard Moving of the selected virtual machines’ storage to new target LUNs Copying of only those NTFS blocks that contain user data using SmartMove Availability of all the volume management functionality The following are the main features supported in CVM: New cluster-shared disk group (CSDG) and cluster-shared volumes Disk group accessibility from multiple nodes in a cluster where volumes remain exclusively accessible from only one node in the cluster Failover at a volume level All the SFW storage management features, such as: SmartIO Thin provisioning and storage reclamation Symantec Dynamic Multi-Pathing for Windows (DMPW) Site-aware allocation using the site-aware read policy Storage migration Standard features for fault tolerance: mirroring across arrays, hot relocation, dirty region logging (DRL), and dynamic relayout Microsoft Failover Clustering integrated I/O fencing New Volume Manager Shared Volume resource for Microsoft failover cluster New GUI elements in VEA related to the new disk group and volume CVM does not support: Active/Passive (A/P) arrays Storage migration on volumes that are offline in the cluster Volume replication on CVM volumes using Symantec Storage Foundation Volume Replicator For information aboutconfiguring a CVM cluster, refer to the quick start guide at: www.symantec.com/docs/DOC8119 The Storage Foundation for Windows documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on the SORT website.Sharing a SFHA/CFS filesystem between Physical and VM servers
Hello, and good afternoon to you all. For one of our cluster deployments, we've been requested to create a Cluster Shared Filesystem including 9 physical servers and 3 VMware VMs (vSphere 5.0 or 5.5, if this matters), all running RHEL6.5. The VMs would be using RDM-P and adhering to all the CFS-inside-a-VM stuff, as always. Performance and sizing issues aside, is this a supported configuration for SFCFSHA? I know using this for VCS is fully supported (and even advertised), but I can't seem to find the mention to this on CFS mounts. Thanks for the attention
How to configure Veritas secure cluster
Configuring a Veritas Cluster Server (VCS) secure cluster ensures that all TCP/IP communication between systems is encrypted. In secure mode, VCS does not store user names or passwords. You can configure secure clusters using the script-based installer or by using the web-based installer. Note: If you have CPS-based fencing configured in your environment, you must have a secure coordination point server (CPS) to run secure clusters or a mix of secure and non-secure clusters. Configuring a secure cluster using the script-based installer Configuring security is an optional step in the configuration flow for VCS. You can configure security with or without Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS). Refer to the following links for the configuration overview and script to configure a secure cluster: Overview of tasks to configure VCS using the script-based installer Configuring Veritas Cluster Server in secure mode In environments that do not support passwordless Secure Shell (SSH) or passwordless Remote Shell (RSH), you cannot use the -security option to enable secure mode for your cluster. To configure a secure cluster in such environments, refer to Configuring a secure cluster node by node. If you need to use an external authentication broker for authenticating VCS users, you must set up a trust relationship between VCS and the broker. For procedure to set up trust relationships for your VCS cluster, refer to Setting up trust relationships for your VCS cluster. Configuring a secure cluster using the web-based installer You can also configure a secure cluster using the web-based installer. However, configuring security is an optional configuration. If you want to configure security later, you can rerun the web‑based installer and simply enable security while retaining the existing configuration. You can also enable the FIPS security option at the same time. If you plan to upgrade the secure cluster, refer to Considerations for upgrading secure VCS 5.x clusters to VCS 6.0.1.Adding Shared Storage - Possible Inconsistancy?
Hi Folks, Can you clarify my understandinging? I have added an extra disk into a server, however when I view it frommylittleexpensiveserver02 I get a different view see below DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS disk_0 auto:none - - online invalid fas31400_1 auto:cdsdisk netbackup02 netbackup online thinrclm nohotuse fas31400_2 auto:cdsdisk netbackup01 netbackup online thinrclm nohotuse fas31400_3 auto:cdsdisk netbackup03 netbackup online thinrclm fas31400_4 auto - - error [root@server01 ~]# DEVICE TYPE DISK GROUP STATUS disk_0 auto:none - - online invalid fas31400_1 auto:cdsdisk - (netbackup) online thinrclm fas31400_2 auto:cdsdisk - (netbackup) online thinrclm fas31400_3 auto - - error fas31400_4 auto:cdsdisk - (netbackup) online thinrclm [root@server02 ~]# group resource system message --------------- -------------------- -------------------- -------------------- server01 RUNNING server02 RUNNING nbu server01 ONLINE nbu server02 OFFLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_dg server01 ONLINE nbu_dg server02 OFFLINE nbu_ip server01 ONLINE nbu_ip server02 OFFLINE nbu_mount server01 ONLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_mount server02 OFFLINE nbu_server server01 ONLINE nbu_server server02 OFFLINE nbu_CISN-STOR-UNIX_proxy server01 ONLINE nbu_CISN-STOR-UNIX_proxy server02 ONLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_bond0_proxy server01 ONLINE nbu_bond0_proxy server02 ONLINE nbu_ie1csnap002_proxy server01 ONLINE nbu_ie1csnap002_proxy server02 ONLINE nbu_vol server01 ONLINE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- nbu_vol server02 OFFLINE I dont understand why I am seeing different views of the storage unless server02 is looking at it down a different scsi bus? Any help appreciated --SteveSFHA Solutions 6.1: New Virtual Business Services features
The following Virtual Business Services (VBS) features are available in the 6.1 release: VBS can remain operational in spite of a tier failure Ability to run custom script on service groups VBS status tracking This article provides a brief overview of the new features. You can access the Virtual Business Service –Availability User’s Guide for additional information on the features and the steps to implement the new features. VBS can remain operational in spite of a tier failure Before the VBS 6.1 release, the VBS start and stop operations did not complete if any of its tier had failed. This feature allows you to proceed with the operation in spite of the failed tiers in the VBS. Ability to run custom script on service groups This feature enables you to run a customized script that performs the required actions on a parent tier when a child tier recovers. This allows the parent tier to run without any interruptions while the child tier recovers and its dependency is reestablished seamlessly. You can configure the custom script when you configure service group dependencies in a VBS. To configure a custom script, see: Custom script execution Configuring custom script execution for soft dependencies Configuring dependencies for a virtual business service VBS operations status tracking This feature makes the VBS operations more transparent and easier to track from the command line. You can track the status and details of operations (tasks) performed on virtual business services and the corresponding actions taken on constituent tiers. This is especially useful in virtual business services with a large number of tiers and dependencies. For more information on VBS status tracking, see: Tracking VBS operations Tracking information about tasks performed on a VBS Tracking information about tier-level sub-tasks performed as a part of a VBS task Tracking step-by-step progress of a VBS task Symantec Storage Foundation and High Availability documentation for other releases and platforms can be found on the SORT website.